Hate Crimes Against Jews in State Rise, Study Says : Prejudice: Los Angeles posts a decline, countering nationwide trend, Anti-Defamation League reports in annual survey.

Although hate crimes directed against Jews were down last year in Los Angeles, such incidents were up 21% in California and reached a 16-year high nationally, Anti-Defamation League officials announced Wednesday.

Enlarged photos of a desecrated Jewish cemetery in Norwalk and swastikas spray-painted on temple doors in Glendale flanked the City Hall lectern as league regional director David A. Lehrer told reporters that his group had documented 2,066 anti-Semitic incidents across the nation in 1994.

The league’s 1994 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents shows the highest national total since the civil rights organization began tracking such incidents 16 years ago, Lehrer said.

“Here in California, the picture is equally troubling,” he said, adding that there were 232 incidents last year, a 21% increase over 1993.

“Among the most disturbing findings of the report is that vandalism has increased for the first time since 1991 and that incidents of violence, assaults, arson, threats and harassments directed at Jews continue to rise unabated,” Lehrer said.

Against the “bleak backdrop” of state and national numbers, Lehrer said, anti-Semitic incidents in Los Angeles--excluding the San Fernando Valley--dropped from 28 in 1993 to 24 last year. Incidents in the Valley declined from 20 to 19 in the same period. Lehrer credited local political leaders such as Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles Police Department with helping to create “a more civil and tolerant society.”

Los Angeles has sent out a message “that acting out one’s bigotry and prejudice is unacceptable and that a price will be paid,” Lehrer said. “An essay on brotherhood will no longer be the remedy for acts of hate. Legislation and firm law enforcement present the prospect of jail time for bigots who act out their sociopathic fantasies.”

The league’s audit cited the example of a self-described skinhead who attacked a yeshiva student in West Hollywood in July with a three-foot pipe and a screwdriver while yelling: “I hate Jews! I’ll kill you!” The student and others who came to his aid were able to subdue the attacker and hold him for police. The attacker was sentenced to a year in County Jail.

Leaders in Los Angeles are “responding more frequently and with sympathy and solidarity toward victims” of hate crimes, Lehrer said.

Riordan, who appeared with league officials at Wednesday’s news conference, described hate as “a cancer that eats away at the moral fiber of every human being.” Although hate crimes are down in Los Angeles, Riordan said, “sadly they still exist. Every single hate crime eats away at our humanity.”

Los Angeles County’s annual hate crime report released in May showed that such incidents in the county were up 6.4% in 1993 from the previous year, with 773 crimes reported. For the first time since 1980, when the county began tracking incidents, gay men supplanted African Americans as the most frequent target.

The Anti-Defamation League has developed training programs for school districts and law enforcement agencies to deal with and prevent hate crimes, said Tzivia Schwartz, the group’s western states civil rights director.

“We understand that the only way to prevent hate crime is to accurately assess the problem, to educate children at a very early age about issues of diversity and to respond to incidents of hate . . . forcefully,” Schwartz said.

The audit’s report of 141 arrests nationally for anti-Semitic crimes in 1994 is more than twice the previous year’s total of 60. That increase may be attributable to factors such as more effective federal hate crime laws, improved training and increased attention from law enforcement and an increased willingness of victims to report the crimes, the audit said.

Founded in 1913, the league combats anti-Semitism through programs aimed at counteracting hatred, prejudice and bigotry, officials said.

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Tracking Hate Crimes The Anti- Defamation League reports anti-Semitic crimes in Los Angeles decreased 14% in 1994, but increased 41% countywide. *

Number of incidents

Los Angeles Los Angeles U.S. California County City 1994 2,066 232 68 24 1993 1,867 191 48 28 1992 1,730 117 N/A N/A 1991 1,879 124 N/A N/A

By Type of Incident

U.S. California 1993 1994 1993 1994 Vandalism 788 869 75 74 Harassment, 1,079 1,197 116 158 threat or assault

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Top Five States California had the third- highest number of anti- Semitic incidents in 1994: 1. New York: 440 2. New Jersey: 237 3. California: 232 4. Florida: 158 5. Massachusett: 134 *

Trouble Spots Of other cities in Los Angeles County reporting incidents, these had the most: Santa Monica: 9 West Hollywood: 9 Beverly Hills: 5 Burbank: 5 La Canada: 3 Covina: 3 Source: Anti- Defamation League